Sprint 1 – Here We Go! – Retrospective

HERE WE GO!

OVERVIEW

My first sprint is over, and I think I can with a straight face that it was a resounding success.

I got a ton done! Given that I now have 8+ hours a day to work on this project instead of ~2-3 then I guess I better have, but still, it was really nice to see come true.

Working from home and being my own boss is cool. And hard. Each morning I try to get up and get dressed as if I’m going to a real job. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wearing a tie or anything, but I do wear shoes and a nice(ish) pair of pants and shirt and the like. My chair is not nearly as ergonomic as my previous work chair, but then again this cost $10 at Goodwill and not $1,000 from an office supply store.

It’s working for me.

Anyway, let’s move onto the highlights and lowlights

HIGHLIGHTS

The game looks and feels and plays nothing like it did before – and that’s good! The whole project was ripped open, rebuilt, polished, and put back together

I have entire systems working now, such as bug catching, interior transition, creature interaction, notifications, and more

I got way more art done than expected, and ended up replacing every piece of placeholder art with my own stuff

Everything is still WIP, but it’s also much, much closer in style and tone to the final product

I have a much deeper understanding of GML in general, but also specifically the powers of scripting

Everything went really great and I sincerely had a blast doing this all week. I am so genuinely happy about what I’m doing

LOWLIGHTS

I tried working in the city for one of the days and it was a real drag. Really hard to concentrate and I felt a lot more aimless than I did at home

I’ve run into a couple bugs that were clearly from my own lack of expertise as a developer, and that’s bummed me out

For as much as I got done, I do wish I got even more. I feel like I met my expectations for what I thought I could do, but I want to be at the stage where I am suprassing them. I need to be efficient in time and money